An Inflationary Cocktail in the Making

Richard Benson

Posted Oct 1, 2010
Benson's Economic & Market Trends
The interesting part of growing older, that my wife and I have noticed, is the appearance that time speeds up. As each month that passes turns into years, as a 60+-year-old I’m feeling the passage of time quite differently than a child would; a year to me feels more like a month, whereas a month in a child’s life feels like a lifetime. Needless to say, I’m still encouraged to continue my favorite pastime of tracking the fluctuations in the cost of living, and my fascination with prices and values has not waned one bit. Also, my wife’s frugalness and aversion to throwing food away has made me very curious about commodity prices, so recently I did some research and discovered the facts weren’t pretty. Below are some Commodity Price increases over the past year:

Commodity Price % Increases


Year over Year

Agricultural Raw Materials 24%

Industrial Inputs Index 25%

Metals Price Index 26%

Coffee 45%

Barley 32%

Oranges 35%

Beef 23%

Pork 68%

Salmon 30%

Sugar 24%

Wool 20%

Cotton 40%

Palm Oil 26%

Hides 25%

Rubber 62%

Iron Ore 103%

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